This miniature was acquired by Frederick, Prince of Wales from the distinguished connoisseur and collector Dr Richard Mead as a portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots. It had been engraved by George Vertue and Jacob Houbraken as Mary, Queen of Scots while in Dr Mead's collection, although Vertue had expressed reservations about the identity. This identification persisted until the early years of the twentieth century.

It is clear that the sitter represented is neither royal nor aristocratic, but a rich citizen's wife drawn from the class in which Isaac Oliver found his first patrons during the late 1580s. The sitter's costume, in particular her peaked hat and divided, pleated ruff has been cited as evidence for a date as early as 1590 but recently scholars have argued in favour of a date following Isaac Oliver's return from Italy (1596-1600) on the basis of technique. Catharine MacLeod compares this work to the dated Hilliard of an unknown woman of 1602 in the V&A (P.26-1975), which shows a woman wearing a very similar costume, and argues for a date of c. 1600. The exceptionally fine details, such as the lace bordering the ruff along the sitter's neckline and the skilful handling of the transparent modesty-piece which is painted to show her flesh beneath, certainly indicate that this is a work of the mature Oliver.